Track & Field Headline

Friday June 7, 2013Four Gators Score on Third Day of NCAA Outdoors

Four Gators scored Friday on the third day of the 2013 NCAA
Outdoor Track & Field Championships, led by freshman Arman Hall (Pembroke
Pines, Fla.) who turned in a podium finish in the men’s 400 with a collegiate-best
45.02, tying Geno White (2000) for fifth all-time in Florida program history.

With Hall’s finish, the rookie became just the 13th freshman
in NCAA history to finish in the top three in 92 years of the event at the NCAA
Outdoor Championships. Hall joins former Gator All-American Tyrone Kemp (2nd –
1989) as the only other Gator freshman to earn a podium finish at the NCAA
Outdoor Championships in the men’s 400 meters.

Joining Hall in scoring in the men’s 400 meters with sophomore
Hugh Graham, Jr. (Miami, Fla.), who finished sixth with his time of
45.57, just .01 off his personal best set in the semifinals of the event
Wednesday. Graham, Jr. and Hall are both members of Florida’s men’s 4x400-meter
relay and will compete in the finals of the event Saturday.

“Just an awesome job by everyone today,” Florida head coach Mike
Holloway said. “For the men, I felt that Arman ‘Gino’ Hall and Hugh Graham,
Jr. both did an excellent job in the 400, finishing third and sixth. For Gino to
come into his first NCAA championships and run a personal best as a frosh
speaks volumes about his future here at UF. Hugh has had a great year and has
established himself as one of the premier 400 runners in the country.”

Senior Ugonna Ndu (Newark, N.J.) finished her
collegiate hurdles career on a high note Friday, finishing fifth in the women’s
400-meter hurdles final with a time of 56.13, just .01 her personal best set at
the 2013 SEC Outdoor Championships. Ndu ran the third leg of the women’s 4x400-meter
relay Thursday and should be in the lineup for the finals of the event Saturday
afternoon.

Sophomore Ciarra Brewer (Union City, Calif.) survived
a scare in the preliminaries of the women’s triple jump, utilizing a mark of
13.36m/43-10 (+1.5) on her final jump after two fouls to advance as one of the
final nine competitors and receive three additional jumps. Brewer then jumped
to fifth place overall in the event after her final jump of 13.53m/44-4.75
(+2.7) to score four points for the Gators and advance to the finals of the
event for the second consecutive season.

“Extremely proud of Ugonna Ndu finishing an awesome senior
season which has seen her set personal bests in all her events,” Holloway said.
“Finishing fifth in the 400 hurdles, running right at her personal best, she
just had a great race.

“I’m also proud of CiCi Brewer for fighting through a
hamstring injury and coming up big on her final jump to finish fifth in the
triple jump,” Holloway noted.

“We have been talking to our women's team about believing in
themselves and competing at the level of this meet,” Holloway continued. “I
felt that both CiCi and Ugonna did that today.”

The four-day meet concludes Saturday, June 8. The Gators
have seven scoring opportunities Saturday, including five on the men’s side and
two on the women’s.

“We have set ourselves up to have a great finish to the
national meet,” Holloway commented. “We have some very strong events for us
tomorrow and I am very excited to watch the Gators compete Saturday.”

For the men, the Gators kick things off in the triple jump
put as senior Omar Craddock (Killeen, Texas), who was recently named the
USTFCCCA South Region Men’s Field Athlete of the Year, will look to defend his
NCAA title in the men’s triple jump, contested at 12:30 p.m. PT. Joining
Craddock on the runway will be sophomore Marquis Dendy (Middletown,
Del.), who will jump last in the first flight of the event while Craddock will
jump last in the second flight.

The Gator men’s 4x100-meter relay will start Saturday on the
track for the Orange and Blue, racing at 2:12 p.m. PT on ESPNU. Junior Eddie
Lovett (West Palm Beach, Fla.) will be next for the Florida men on the
track with his final of the men’s 110-meter hurdles, contested at 3:16 p.m. PT
Saturday. Lovett won the NCAA hurdles title indoors in 2013 and ran an
all-conditions best in the event Friday with his time of 13.29 (+2.1). The
men’s 4x400-meter relay, who ran a season’s best 3:02.64, the 10th-fastest time
in UF history.

For the women, All-American Cory McGee (Pass
Christian, Miss.) will race in her third straight NCAA final in the women’s
1,500 meters at 2:19 p.m. PT. The Gator women’s 4x400-meter relay will compete
at 3:43 p.m. PT Saturday to close women’s events at the meet, having advanced
to the finals with a new lineup and their second-best time of the season at
3:30.48.

“As always we want to make the Gator Nation proud and show
everyone why it's great to be a Florida Gator,” Holloway finished.

The Gator men are the defending NCAA Outdoor Champions and
have placed in the top three at the last four NCAA Outdoor Championships, while
the Florida women recorded a third-place finish at the 2010 NCAA Outdoor
Championships.

A program-record 28 qualifiers made the trek from
Gainesville to Eugene as 14 women, 11 men and three relays will represent the
Orange and Blue at historic Hayward Field on the campus of the University of
Oregon. The women are tied with host Oregon for the second-most qualifiers at the
NCAA Championships, while the men are also tied with the Ducks for the
fourth-most qualifiers in Eugene.

Along with the new program record, the 15 Gator women (14
individuals, one relay) qualified for NCAAs is also a Florida record and the 13
UF men (11 individuals, two relays) is the second-most qualifiers in program
history. The Orange and Blue qualified a UF record 16 men in 2011.

Live results for the 2013 NCAA Championships can be found on
Flash
Results and a full recap and results will be available daily on GatorZone.

The ESPN family of networks will broadcast the majority of
the meet between ESPN3 and ESPNU, with supplementary webcasting on the Pac-12 Live Stream.